Redevelopment Commission Hears About Sewer District, Asks for Zoning Plan On 15
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Barbee Lakes resident David Doctor reiterated plans to initiate a regional sewer district before the Kosciusko County Redevelopment Commission Wednesday.
Tuesday, Doctor, who said he was a member of the Barbee Lakes Environmental Task Force, presented the concept at the county commissioners meeting, which met with their approval. A permit application is being forwarded to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for review.
Doctor said the redevelopment commission was being advised of the district to let them fit it into long-range planning. It will be called the Lakeland Regional Sewer District so it doesn't seem exclusive to the Barbee chain of lakes.
The district is being formed on the heels of the Barbee Lakes Conservancy District dissolution. A vote of freeholders in favor of ending the district occurred in December. A subsequent circuit court order placed the district's collected $305,000 in escrow with the county.
One of the district's last acts was to pay the difference, $70,212, between a 6-inch pipe and an 8-inch pipe extending from Armstrong Road at the Oakland Hills subdivision to the North Webster Elementary School.
Doctor expects the escrowed funds to go toward the new sewer district's capital funding. He said state and federal grants, low interest loans, hook-up and user fees would be used for sanitary sewer line installation and maintenance.
Lot size, flood and lake water levels and failing or inadequate septic systems call for a sewer system according to state, regional and local studies.
Doctors said of the 2,000 lots around the lake, 84 percent are smaller than the county's 20,000 square foot minimum lot size; 64 percent of those are smaller than 10,000 square feet, and 25 percent are smaller than 5,000 square feet. Obsolete steel tanks and 55-gallon barrels serve as septic "systems" for some properties.
The difference between the 100-year flood levels is 3 feet. Leach beds are often submerged during wet seasons.
Preliminary studies and engineering for a sewer system are fairly complete and would be forwarded to IDEM for approval.
Redevelopment Commission member Larry Teghtmeyer asked about adding the Tippecanoe Lake to the district because much of the studies for a sewer system there have been completed, too.
Doctor said that area could be added to the district, that the permit approval to the construction period probably would take two to three years. He said IDEM had just one person to review the application and both Wells and Elkhart counties have forwarded plans for a countywide sewer district.
Teghtmeyer and Bill Warren agreed to contact lake area representatives to discuss additional sewer.
The commission agreed to draft a letter of support to establish the regional sewer district.
Joy McCarthy-Sessing, of Kosciusko County Development Inc., presented the organization's annual report, which includes sewer capacity and use in the county's city and towns.
Lowell Owen asked where the Area Plan Commission was with a zoning proposal for property along Ind. 15. He called the need for such an ordinance and its rules and regulations an emergency.
"We asked for it four months ago," he said. "People (along the highway) are asking for variances to zoning and they shouldn't have to. Now the APC is waiting until October or November to report. Things are moving fast. It's almost too late."
Commission President Max Courtney said he talked to APC President Vic Virgil. Virgil suggested three APC members meet with a couple of commissioners to work on the Ind. 15 zoning.
Owen and Bruce Woodward volunteered for the task.
"If they (the county planning department) don't have the time, maybe we need to spend some money and hire someone to get this done," Courtney said.
Courtney also proposed the commission hire a part-time person to do research. Warren suggested KDI be contacted because that organzation's employees already are trained in pursuing that kind of information.
The next commission meeting is July 17 at 10 a.m. in the commissioner's room at the courthouse. [[In-content Ad]]
Barbee Lakes resident David Doctor reiterated plans to initiate a regional sewer district before the Kosciusko County Redevelopment Commission Wednesday.
Tuesday, Doctor, who said he was a member of the Barbee Lakes Environmental Task Force, presented the concept at the county commissioners meeting, which met with their approval. A permit application is being forwarded to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for review.
Doctor said the redevelopment commission was being advised of the district to let them fit it into long-range planning. It will be called the Lakeland Regional Sewer District so it doesn't seem exclusive to the Barbee chain of lakes.
The district is being formed on the heels of the Barbee Lakes Conservancy District dissolution. A vote of freeholders in favor of ending the district occurred in December. A subsequent circuit court order placed the district's collected $305,000 in escrow with the county.
One of the district's last acts was to pay the difference, $70,212, between a 6-inch pipe and an 8-inch pipe extending from Armstrong Road at the Oakland Hills subdivision to the North Webster Elementary School.
Doctor expects the escrowed funds to go toward the new sewer district's capital funding. He said state and federal grants, low interest loans, hook-up and user fees would be used for sanitary sewer line installation and maintenance.
Lot size, flood and lake water levels and failing or inadequate septic systems call for a sewer system according to state, regional and local studies.
Doctors said of the 2,000 lots around the lake, 84 percent are smaller than the county's 20,000 square foot minimum lot size; 64 percent of those are smaller than 10,000 square feet, and 25 percent are smaller than 5,000 square feet. Obsolete steel tanks and 55-gallon barrels serve as septic "systems" for some properties.
The difference between the 100-year flood levels is 3 feet. Leach beds are often submerged during wet seasons.
Preliminary studies and engineering for a sewer system are fairly complete and would be forwarded to IDEM for approval.
Redevelopment Commission member Larry Teghtmeyer asked about adding the Tippecanoe Lake to the district because much of the studies for a sewer system there have been completed, too.
Doctor said that area could be added to the district, that the permit approval to the construction period probably would take two to three years. He said IDEM had just one person to review the application and both Wells and Elkhart counties have forwarded plans for a countywide sewer district.
Teghtmeyer and Bill Warren agreed to contact lake area representatives to discuss additional sewer.
The commission agreed to draft a letter of support to establish the regional sewer district.
Joy McCarthy-Sessing, of Kosciusko County Development Inc., presented the organization's annual report, which includes sewer capacity and use in the county's city and towns.
Lowell Owen asked where the Area Plan Commission was with a zoning proposal for property along Ind. 15. He called the need for such an ordinance and its rules and regulations an emergency.
"We asked for it four months ago," he said. "People (along the highway) are asking for variances to zoning and they shouldn't have to. Now the APC is waiting until October or November to report. Things are moving fast. It's almost too late."
Commission President Max Courtney said he talked to APC President Vic Virgil. Virgil suggested three APC members meet with a couple of commissioners to work on the Ind. 15 zoning.
Owen and Bruce Woodward volunteered for the task.
"If they (the county planning department) don't have the time, maybe we need to spend some money and hire someone to get this done," Courtney said.
Courtney also proposed the commission hire a part-time person to do research. Warren suggested KDI be contacted because that organzation's employees already are trained in pursuing that kind of information.
The next commission meeting is July 17 at 10 a.m. in the commissioner's room at the courthouse. [[In-content Ad]]